Overview:
Haiti’s La Gonâve native Gerdine Michel Ulysse leads the brand new Creole and Haitian Research minor at UChicago, advancing Haiti’s legacy in U.S. academia by way of cultural satisfaction and sound pedagogy. Her journey from a modest upbringing to tutorial management displays each Haiti’s unrealized potential and the transformative energy of training and tradition.
In 2006, Gerdine Michel—then a junior highschool pupil—boarded a small motorboat from the coast of her hometown, Anse-à-Galets, La Gonâve, heading 30 miles northwest towards Port-au-Prince seeking a greater training. Two years later, she made a fair greater leap, taking a flight to Wisconsin, United States, forsaking her mother and father and eight siblings.
She additionally determined to go away her legislation research, which she had began on the State University of Haiti. This time, she carried not simply hopes and goals in her baggage—however a mission.
Younger Michel—now Ulysse by way of marriage—grew up on the 326-square-mile La Gonâve island, west of mainland Haiti, the place there isn’t any college or technical school. Sponsored by Compassion International with the backing of a USAID-funded scholarship, she got here to the U.S., decided to review water useful resource administration and return residence to assist her neighborhood.
In 2010, she earned an affiliate’s diploma in Water Administration Know-how from Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, Wisconsin. After which, the native of Anse-à-Galets returned residence as promised—however her path had solely simply begun. She returned to the U.S. a couple of years later to pursue additional research as extra alternatives arose.
Immediately, she serves as an assistant tutorial professor and program coordinator on the University of Chicago (UChicago), a place she has held since 2021. This fall, Ulysse leads the launch of a newly authorized minor in Creole and Haitian Research—one in all only some such tutorial packages in the US. A program she has developed from scratch.
“I by no means thought I’d assist form a college curriculum within the U.S., not to mention a program on Creole and Haitian Research,” Ulysse instructed The Haitian Instances.
As Haitian research progressively positive factors momentum in American larger training—fueled primarily by renewed curiosity in Haiti’s revolutionary historical past, diasporic migration and the Creole language—Ulysse’s position helps set up a nationwide precedent.
Only some different establishments, reminiscent of Duke College and the College of Florida (UF), supply devoted Haitian Creole research packages. Different notable faculties embody the College of Pittsburgh, the College of Central Florida (UCF), Tulane College, Florida Worldwide College (FIU), the College of Miami (UM), the College of Massachusetts Boston, Howard College, Indiana College Bloomington and the College of Kansas.
Most packages are a part of broader Francophone or Caribbean research, usually with out Haitian management on the forefront.
Constructing from scratch, honoring a worthy legacy
At UChicago, Ulysse has developed a seven-course curriculum rooted in language, Haitian literature and cultural research. This system requires six programs past the second-year Haitian Creole sequence, with one superior writing course and one culture-intensive language course. She describes this system as “an immersive expertise that connects college students with Haiti—linguistically, traditionally and socially.”
“Sharing my language and tradition with others in essentially the most scientific manner, particularly in Chicago, has introduced nice pleasure to my life. It feels as if I’m fulfilling an necessary responsibility that has develop into a mission over time.”
Gerdine Michel Ulysse, Professor of the College of Chicago
“Past the classroom, this system companions with the Haitian American Museum of Chicago and the DuSable Heritage Association and hosts pupil occasions by way of the college’s Creole Membership that showcase Haiti in its cultural and sociolinguistic context,” Ulysse mentioned.
The tutorial program Ulysse has developed is cataloged on the college’s Humanities and Arts School, particularly within the Romance Languages and Literatures division—beneath ‘Minor in Creole and Haitian Research.’ Alison James, who leads the Division of Romance Languages and Literatures, additionally highlighted the necessary position that Ulysse continues to play in organizing quite a few cultural actions partaking with the Haitian neighborhood in Chicago.
“Due to her dedication, the Creole program has quickly taken form and gained momentum, attracting a rising variety of college students from different backgrounds,” James instructed The Haitian Instances.
“[The Creole program] has organically discovered its place inside the multilingual surroundings of the Division of Romance Languages and Literatures and inside the burgeoning discipline of Caribbean Research—one of many College of Chicago’s strengths.”
On Could 16, the Creole Membership, established in 2022 hosted UChicago’s first annual Haitian Heritage Celebration, bringing collectively college students, school, the broader Chicago Haitian neighborhood and buddies.
“Sharing my language and tradition with others in essentially the most scientific manner, particularly in Chicago, has introduced nice pleasure to my life,” she mentioned. “It feels as if I’m fulfilling an necessary responsibility that has develop into a mission over time.”
Ulysse is a scholar formed by many worlds. She holds a Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition from Carnegie Mellon University, together with a grasp’s in French from the University of Arizona and a bachelor’s in philosophy from the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point. Her analysis and educating are deeply anchored in sociolinguistics and cultural preservation.
Recognition for Ulysse’s work goes past a brand new minor in Creole and Haitian Research
In 2025 alone, she was acknowledged with the College of Chicago’s prestigious Glenn and Claire Swogger Award for Exemplary Classroom Instruction and the Janel M. Mueller Award for Excellence in Pedagogy. In 2022, she obtained the College Award from the African and Caribbean College students Affiliation.
For college students like Carole Saint-Hilaire, born to a Haitian father and a Jamaican mom, studying Creole has strengthened their ties to their household.
“I can completely talk with everybody now. That’s one thing I’ll at all times cherish,” mentioned Saint-Hilaire, now vice-president of the Creole Membership on the College of Chicago, in a video message to The Haitian Instances.
“Earlier than, I needed to have the ability to discuss to my grandparents so badly, however I couldn’t.”
“I was so upset that I couldn’t perceive my dad when he spoke Creole,” mentioned a Haitian-Dominican pupil, who took Ulysse’s programs. “Now, he can’t whisper something previous me.”
“These programs empower our college students to interact with the linguistic, cultural, and historic richness of Haiti and its diasporas,” Nikhita Obeegadoo, assistant professor of French and Francophone research at UChicago instructed The Haitian Instances
Obeegadoo, who’s from Mauritius with French colonial ties, additionally speaks her homeland’s model of Creole.
“By highlighting the sweetness and creativity of the Creole language, these programs de-center Eurocentric frames of reference relating to language,” Obeegadoo mentioned.
“And by delving into the contexts of resistance and resilience that give beginning to Creole, they train college students that one can not actually know a language with out realizing the individuals who communicate it, or the place they arrive from.”
College students with none Haitian heritage, reminiscent of Olger Carcache, have additionally taken an curiosity within the Creole programs supplied at UChicago.
“Haiti has been pivotal in historical past for being the primary free Black republic on the planet,” Carcache mentioned whereas explaining why he signed up for Creole courses.
“With Haitian Creole being essentially the most broadly spoken Creole on the planet, it’s straightforward to understand Haiti’s tradition, its delicacies, music, dances and the way humorous Haitian individuals are.”
Balancing brilliance and household
A mom of three youngsters beneath 10, partner, language program coordinator and resident head on campus, Ulysse wears many hats. She manages all of it with readability and intention.
“Stability is essential,” she mentioned. “I attempt to prioritize what’s pressing. Many issues are necessary without delay, however not all are pressing.”
Her husband, Serge—{an electrical} engineer who works out of state—performs a pivotal position in that steadiness. “He at all times makes positive he’s out there to assist, particularly after I’m unable to be with the kids because of my demanding schedule,” Ulysse mentioned.
Somewhat than viewing these roles as separate, Ulysse’s capacity to navigate them displays the identical goal that drives her work in academia and neighborhood constructing: rising not only for oneself, however for others.
Increasing the mission: neighborhood, tradition and civic engagement
Ulysse’s attain extends nationally. She’s introduced at main conferences, together with the Linguistic Society of America and the American Affiliation for Utilized Linguistics. She additionally usually speaks at cultural galas and neighborhood boards, together with occasions on the Haitian Consulate in Chicago and UChicago’s Black Convocation.
“Haitian Creole is greater than a language. It’s a vessel of reminiscence, resistance and satisfaction,” Ulysse mentioned. “We should proceed constructing areas—inside and out of doors academia—the place it’s celebrated and studied.”
Now that this system the Haitian American professor manages has reached a major milestone, the following step is to develop it additional. Ulysse is devoted to persevering with her work on growing this system right into a full main, strengthening neighborhood involvement and mentoring future leaders.
A aim that many Haitians nourish. “We don’t simply rise for ourselves—we rise for our communities,” Ulysse mentioned.
She views this milestone as only the start, not the tip. For her, “language is a bridge”—and she or he’s nonetheless setting up it one step at a time.